Our Students

CCA students represent a diversity of interests, socio-economic backgrounds, life experiences, and achievement levels. Ninety percent of students come from the Westside communities of North Lawndale, East and West Garfield Park, and Austin where unemployment and poverty are high and educational achievement is low. Ten percent come from other communities city-wide.

CCA achieves results with their graduates where other programs have not. In spite of their individual crises or the chaos around them, CCA students still want and still try to “make it.” They demonstrate the “tenacity of the human spirit”—one of our greatest gifts. Because of this, nearly 80% of CCA students graduate each year and 90% of the graduates go on to enroll in college and/or find opportunities in the military, vocational school and in gainful employment.